The Wawa BIA could be disbanding in the new year.
During last night's Committee of the Whole meeting, Wawa Municipal Council was apprised of a letter from the BIA, informing the municipality that its board had passed a resolution recommending dissolution of the Business Improvement Area due to a shrinking business community and especially volunteer base, which has made it difficult for the organization to form a board and meet quorum for its meetings.
CAO Maury O'Neill explained that the Municipal Act would require the Municipality to give BIA members - businesses along Broadway Avenue and much of Mission Road - 60 days notice if they're planning to disband it, allowing those members time to respond.
O'Neill also noted a review's underway for the BIA's assets - mainly the Christmas lights and BIA banners - but it's believed the organization has sufficient funds to wind up operations, so the current recommendation for next year's budget is not to levy funds for the BIA.
Asked who'd be responsible for the lights, banners, and planters without the BIA, O'Neill explained that would fall to the Municipality, which has already been covering much of that anyway, with contributions from the BIA, though she noted that's something Council would need to decide whether they want to continue.
Council appeared in favour of the dissolution, though no formal vote was taken.
This comes just shy of a decade after then-Mayor Linda Nowicki pushed to dissolve the BIA due to inactivity, though she withdrew that when the organization elected a new executive and pushed to continue operations.